Collectors Are Into the Worst Art (“Kesh Girls” at Taymour Grahne Gallery)

Hassan Hajjaj photographs his lady friends in Morocco as if they were in biker gangs, but they’re not. They’re just his friends and he dressed them up. These uber-stylized shoots look like Elle collided with National Geographic, but there’s an artsy edge, too. Not one, but two “Kesh Girls” look like they’re covered in Damien Hirst’s dots. East-meets-West-meets-blue-chip and no surprise—this show’s been a hit.

“Over 80 percent of the works have been sold, for over $40,000 a piece,” a designer friend of mine mentioned at an opening. Well, that’s a depressing statistic. For me, they’re a bit too close to exoticism, and glorify a subculture that doesn’t exist. But whatever! Collectors like to put pretty things in storage, and that’s exactly where these things are headed.